


miss americana & the heartbreak prince

by uncoollove



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Introspection, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, all the good shit, heavy gina pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:27:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21830713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uncoollove/pseuds/uncoollove
Summary: "East High was just supposed to be another school added onto Gina's long rap sheet. Until it wasn’t. Ricky was clearly an outsider just like her."gina's journey from stone-cold bitch to melty mush for ricky bowen. the angsty piney slowburn introspective stuff i think is going on in both their heads
Relationships: Ricky Bowen/Gina Porter
Comments: 7
Kudos: 116





	miss americana & the heartbreak prince

Gina doesn’t do friends—or at least she didn’t _use to_ do friends. Seven schools in five years didn’t allow for much stability. Over the years, she’d taught herself the exact amount of surface-level vulnerability to give to people in order to gain a few acquittances. But never friends, never real genuine friendship, no attachments. Never had the time for it. 

Years of that icy exterior resulted in a very jaded, pessimistic outlook on the world. In her mind—in her world, you eat or be eaten. She’d survived solely on her ambition without a single scar. She also lied to herself to get through the days, the months, the years. And pretending like she didn’t have scars, well, she chalked that up to plausible deniability. No pain no gain, right? 

East High was just supposed to be another school added onto her long rap sheet. Until it wasn’t. He was clearly an outsider just like her. In a room full of conventional talent, Ricky’s silky-smooth distinct voice and guitar-playing struck a chord, literally. He didn’t have the same experience as the seasoned veterans in the room, but he had a certain something some artists search for all of their lives. 

Gina admired that. He made the others question the established rules. Stability wasn’t her forte. She’d grown accustomed to constant change and unpredictability. He sparked change and she liked that.

Or it was because unknowingly damaged people attracted other damaged people? Two sides of the same coin? Cut from the same cloth? One of those worked.

She knew she wasn’t a good person, making it in this industry didn’t necessarily mean she had to be a good person. Incredibly cutthroat and crude men coasted through entertainment careers with empty smiles and mediocre talent. Their ambition is seen as an attribute whereas for women it’s a downfall. 

But that didn’t mean she had the luxury of outwardly wearing her true bleeding heart on her sleeve. She’s had to be the best in the room, no matter the cost. It’s what her mom drilled into her brain from the second Gina learned how to pile and releve.

In reality, she knew if she slowed down enough to really figure out who she was outside the ambition, she wouldn’t really know the person she’d become. 

Was she this sweet girl living a lie for own her mother’s expectations with no way of escaping? Or was she the soulless vampire with ambition too outrageous and undesirable it purposefully shunned people away? 

Gina doesn’t know. She definitely felt like the villain in the story of her peers. But all of the internal ebbs and flows of self-doubt flipped on its head when floppy-haired, guitar-playing, Nini loving, Ricky, _out of all people_ , gave her an uncalled-for verbal whiplashing.

It’s debatable if she actually deserved it, maybe she did. Nobody’s really called her out on her shit like that before and never was it unprovoked.

She was stunned, really. She didn’t think Ricky had the gall to randomly pick a fight with her. If one of the few decent people at this school tried to knock her down a peg, then there was a chance she was in the wrong. It didn’t feel so good.

Ricky apologized to appease his own moral compass. Even though it was partly about himself, it felt genuine. 

She surprised herself that night. Emotional unavailability was typically her go-to coping mechanism and all of that dissipated in Ricky’s small vintage orange buggy. There was a certain warmth that radiated off of him. And that unrelenting warmth found its way to Gina.

It was the first time in a long time when she didn’t feel weighed down, somewhat calmed? Uncharacteristically, she even kissed Ricky on the cheek. None of it made sense to her. Maybe that thing people called friendship was worth all the trouble.

* * *

The cast brought her back. After everything she’d done, she questioned whether she deserved their forgiveness. But these people she had just met a short semester ago, snuck their way into her lonely friendless life. And if she was honest, their friendship felt like home.

The currants closed and people began to dissipate off the stage. In a close distance, Gina catches a glimpse of Ricky and Nini. Their inevitability must make them both feel so safe. 

There’s a slight twinge of pain pushing on Gina’s heart that she quite honestly doesn’t understand. 

Ricky and Nini were inevitable in every sense of the word. For months, their reconciliation bubbled underneath the surface. 

Ricky, draped in Troy’s iconic tracksuit, abruptly interrupts Gina’s train of thought.

“Hey, Gina.”

Gina thinks his warmth comes from his megawatt smile.

She heys him back and says, “I’m happy for you.” The corners of her mouth turns upwards in a pained grin.

He stutters a bit, “I-wh-huh?”

She flicks her chin in Nini and Seb’s direction. He follows her direction and sharply turns his head to his girlfriend in deep conversation. 

“Oh..yeah…that.”

“I’m not an idiot. I can see it on your face and hers.”

“Really?” His eyebrows jump in surprise. “That obvious?” He quips.

“I mean if you wanted to keep it secret, I think playing Troy and Gabriella really defeats that purpose," she jokes. "But seriously, you two really deserve another chance. Especially after everything you’ve been through.” She lies again. She’s getting good at it. 

“Thanks, Gina.” 

He looks down a bit, maybe a little embarrassed that she knows him so well. There’s a slight pause before he does something that takes Gina completely off guard. He suddenly wraps her in his long arms in a tight hug. She waits a split second before she responds and hugs him back, equally as affectionate.

Ricky knows Gina. He knows that she struggles to find herself in the center of all the chaos at home, at school and most of all within herself. He knows why she lashes out, sometimes has manipulative tendencies and why she’s the most warm-hearted person he’s ever met. He _got_ her.

And maybe whatever unexplainable connection they had existed because they took the time to accept each other’s flaws and all. 

While she’s done quite a few questionable things in her tenure at East High, her support and sanctuary meant quite a lot to him over these last few months. He never in a million years would’ve predicted it. She was an outlier, an anomaly, an exception to the rule and inevitability. 

He whispers, “You killed it tonight. I’m so happy you’re back.”

Gina instantly pulls away when she feels the hug getting more intimate for just friends. She fidgets a little more before quickly finding an excuse to exit herself from this conversation she’s painfully faking for him. “I should probably find my mom and get going.”

“Oh okay? We’re having that after-party at Big Red’s in an hour, remember?” 

She mentally scolds herself for forgetting. She murmurs, “Shit.” Apologetically she says, “I forgot about it. I’m sorry I’m feeling really emotionally and physically wiped Ricky. I think I just might miss it. Send everybody my love and thanks, okay?”

“Really?” His right eyebrow does a slight rise again questioning her. 

“Yeah, I think I just need to go home and spend some time with my mom.” She averts his eye line. Which hard to do when they’re almost at eye level.

He knows not to fight her strong-willed nature. “Alright but text me when you get home.”

She’s slowly walking backwards towards the exit when she agrees that she will. 

Gina turns in the opposite direction and she feels her throat tighten and eyes momentarily fog up. For the record, she’s _not_ crying, Gina Porter does not cry over boys. She gently slaps herself with both hands to snap out of this ridiculous emotional blip.

Ricky stands there watching her leave. When she finally is out of reach, his shoulders slump and fall. He couldn’t explain the pulsing beat of his heart. 

Nini finishes her conversation with Seb and Carlos and finds her way to Ricky. She realizes his somber mood. Wrapping her arms around his torso, she asks, “What’s wrong?”

He repeats. “Nothing. Nothing.” He doesn’t know what’s wrong. He wouldn’t even know how the hell to explain this tightening feeling around his chest the second Gina pulled away.

Nini interrupts his thoughts with a kiss on the cheek that makes him flinch a little. It reminds him of another night in his shitty obnoxious car with another girl.

“Let’s go party then!”

* * *

And this was the fundamental reason she didn’t get attached. Gina Porter doesn’t get attached. Certainly not to floppy-haired, guitar-playing boys with perfectly sweet and equally as talent girlfriends. 

Those scars she told herself she didn’t have felt a little less embarrassing when she talked to Ricky, spent time with Ricky.

She misses that icy exterior right about now. It finally sunk in that even though she’s made some grave mistakes in her past, that person never was who she was. It just took one person to simply talk to.

Weirdly and amazingly enough, that person was Ricky. He personified kindness. The type of kindness that could melt any cynic.

It didn’t happen all at once. But slowly, in some inexplicable way, she felt like her truest self around him. All of those moments and talks strung together made her realize the place he held in her life. A girl who struggled so much with who she was, finally felt at peace.

So, Gina put as much distance as possible between herself and Ricky and Nini’s annoying inevitability. This is why she locked this part of herself away.

After all, she isn’t the Gabriella in this story.

**Author's Note:**

> hii hope you enjoyed reading this. sorry if i mixed up tenses it's late and i'm not editing this. comments are always appreciated! xx


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